Impossible Project Instant Lab turns iPhone photos into instant film

Now here is a Kickstarter project that would definitely appeal to many folks, especially when you consider how it is capable of transforming your iPhone photos into instant film. Basically, the Instant Lab from Impossible Project lives up to its name, and according to the Impossible Project co-founder Florian Kaps, “Digital images look great, but there is one big disappointment: They don’t exist in reality, they are not real.” Do you agree with that particular statement, or otherwise?

We do know that Impossible Project was reborn a couple of years ago, where the instant film churned out by it would work with existing Polaroid cameras back then, including the iconic Polaroid 600 and the SX-70. Based in the Netherlands, all of Impossible Project’s products are churned out from an old Polaroid factory. At time of publishing, Instant Lab will play nice only with the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S, but needless to say, the iPhone 5 is definitely in the company’s sights for sure.

To use Instant Lab, just open the app, select the photo that you want to project, and the app will get about using its own algorithms to set the brightness levels as well as time the phone’s display will be on to make sure that the film is properly exposed. You follow that up by setting a timer while placing the phone into a cradle on top of a set of “bellows,” opening up the shutter above the film. Should the timer go off, it will trigger the camera to expose the film and the user then closes the shutter, ejecting the film just like you do with an old Polaroid camera.

Instant Lab is said to come with a $299 price tag, although Kickstarter backers can get theirs for $189. As at press time, it seems that the Instant Lab is on track to arrive in February next year for a truly vintage Valentine’s Day.